The international clamor and juicy gossip surrounding the WikiLeaks fiasco are obscuring critical facts. Sweep away the smoke to see the Big Picture:

FIRST, the Obama administration did nothing to stop this disaster when it had a chance. The almost-certain leaker, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, was hostile to the military as far back as January. That month, he wrote on his Facebook page, “Bradley Manning didn’t want this fight. Too much to lose, too fast,” according to London’s Daily Telegraph.

It reports that in May, serving at a base near Baghdad, he changed his status to “Bradley Manning is now left with the sinking feeling that he doesn’t have anything left.”

Five days later, Manning, openly gay and half-British, wrote that he was “livid” after being “lectured by ex-boyfriend.” He was arrested that month for leaking a video of a helicopter attack, and is still being held. By then, he already had downloaded 250,000 documents and given them to WikiLeaks, an anti-American site based in Iceland.

The first batch, released in July, detailed US battle reports in Afghanistan and included the names of informants.

Manning is no whistleblower. He is a traitor and should be charged with treason. He betrayed his nation in a time of war.

SECOND, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was derelict in not trying to stop the release. It was not until Saturday, when it was well-known the documents were about to be published, that a State Department lawyer wrote to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and told him to stop. That’s pathetically little and late.

Clinton now calls the release “illegal” and says publication “puts people’s lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries.”

Granted — so why didn’t she move hell and high water to block it? Her failure to act is a major black mark against her.

THIRD, nobody in government, except Manning, has been held responsible. That must change. How can it be that a lowly, twisted private could get access to so much confidential communication and download it with nobody knowing?

One sleuth we can’t count on is Attorney General Eric Holder. He talked tough about a probe, then left for Switzerland to lobby for bringing the 2022 World Cup soccer games to the United States.

Maybe he’ll run into Assange on this outrageous junket.

FOURTH, The New York Times, the only American paper to get the documents, should not have published them.

The Times says it got them from The Guardian, a left-wing British paper, and denies it is “partnering” with WikiLeaks. That’s a distinction without a difference.

“We have edited out any information that could identify confidential sources — including informants, dissidents, academics and human-rights activists — or otherwise compromise national security,” Times executive editor Bill Keller told readers.

Yet Keller admitted the Times told WikiLeaks what it was withholding. That reflects an undeserved trust that WikiLeaks will not flag that information for our enemies.

The Times also forfeits its claim to being a neutral observer. It can’t very well say the documents aren’t newsworthy after devoting pages to them. Nor can it criticize the White House for failing to safeguard them, after being the instrument of their release.

FIFTH, why is President Obama hiding?

The White House press secretary said only that Obama was “not happy” with the release. The president, meanwhile, is trying to look busy, busy on other things. Monday, he announced his plan to freeze federal wages, and yesterday, he gave a short speech after meeting with GOP leaders.

He took no questions and never mentioned the largest security breach in American history.

HE’S THE BOSS

“There will be one person in charge. Make no mistake about that.”

With that declaration, Mayor Bloomberg aimed to put to rest the idea that new Chancellor Cathie Black would be sharing power with her chief academic deputy. Legally, he’s right, but there is another, inadvertent meaning to the mayor’s words as well.

With Joel Klein moving off stage, and with Black’s education views a blank slate, the mayor, more than ever, becomes “the one person in charge.”

Nine years into his reign, Bloomy’s decision to replace Klein removes a buffer and any plausible deniability. Their good-cop, bad-cop routine insulated the mayor from most school failures, while earning him national praise for its successes.

Klein treated the teachers union as a piñata, while the mayor gave them raises of 43 percent without demanding major reforms. The unpopular Klein became a lightning rod, and Bloomy got a third term by floating above the messy details.

Over time, the act evolved into a true contradiction. Bloomberg eventually concluded he needed better relations with the union and a better manager at the Department of Education. His opening came when city scores plummeted after the state toughened tests and raised passing rates, effectively erasing four years of city gains.

To get Black approved for the job, Bloomberg had to promise she would promote an experienced educator with wide latitude. Ever sensitive to prerogative, he now prefers to cast that credential compromise as incidental.

It was not because state officials were prepared to block Black if the mayor had not capitulated. In the end, as I predicted, they found a way to get what they wanted while giving Bloomberg his choice.

But that choice creates a new dynamic, one that directly exposes the mayor to school results. If Black makes measurable progress, he will get full credit for thinking boldly.

If she fails, he’ll be on the hook big time for appointing someone ill suited for the job.

Either way, it’s his baby now.

It’s $uper sergeant!

The Port Authority is taking heat over a sergeant who earned nearly $30,000 in overtime in just 16 days. Sgt. John Farrell was working at JFK in September while about 80 heads of state arrived for the UN General Assembly.

The Post reports Farrell averaged 16 hours of OT each day. If so, there’s no sense getting mad at a man with such awesome powers. Working so many extra hours on top of a normal 8-hour shift would mean he worked 24 hours a day.

Farrell is obviously Superman. Or something else.

Longing for Dubya

A liberal friend, a big Democratic fund-raiser, sees the light. After railing against Obama as a confused and confusing president, he concluded with this: “You know, I watched George Bush’s whole interview on ‘The Today Show’ and I realized I missed him. I didn’t like him or his policies, but at least you know who he was and what he believed. I miss that.”

More hot air from Gore

Al Gore is coming clean about clean energy. In a speech in Greece, he said ethanol subsidies he sup ported were wrong, and confessed: “One of the rea sons I made that mistake is that I paid particular atten tion to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fond ness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.” He is not forgiven.